How You Know When to Splurge or Bargain

This post provides easy tips that help you to decide when to splurge or bargain on a new wardrobe addition.

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Never wear just one designer

An entire outfit of Chanel or Dior sounds tempting, but would look over the top, and may even scream Old Lady or she does not know how to dress. Pulling together an outfit of high and low price labels is so much more interesting and stylish. An efficient way to create a balanced high-medium-low price label wardrobe on a budget is to recognize a bargain and to know when to splurge, which may even occur at the same time.

What’s a Bargain

Example: Trend Bargain

Trendy items are rarely worth a splurge unless they have the potential to become a collector item ten or more years from now. Think of the MOSCHINO belt of the 80s. At the moment, the tulle/mesh skirts (see photos) are hot. Who knows when they will have had their moment? I love this Lookbook Store mesh skirt and its price is low enough ($19) to get it down to less than a dollar per wear in just one summer season.

How to Know when to Splurge

You can rarely go wrong when you divide the price by the number of an honest estimate of how often you will wear an item. The resulting cost-per-wear should be lower or equal to your threshold value. My targets are one to two dollars per wear for trendy items like a mesh skirt and small bargain splurge items. My target for very expensive splurges is to get the cost-per-wear down to less than a dollar over the years.

Example: Classic Splurge

Classic items that have the potential to last several seasons, or items that you can wear in three seasons, are worth to spend more money. Classic pumps, winter boots, solid cashmere sweaters, a LBD, a trench coat, or the motorcycle leather jacket shown in the OOTD, fall in this class. I bought the jacket for $151 and will wear it fall to spring – both included.

Example: A Bargain to Splurge on

A bargain to splurge on is your personal It item that is still expensive when on sale with respect to your budget, but you saved for it and you intend to wear it for years to come. For instance, a Chanel bag that is 10% off. If you wear this bag every day for four to five years it will get down to less than a dollar per wear. Thus, a $1000 bag can be cheaper than having the trendy bag of the season each season. It’s up to you to decide. More on carrying expensive bags.

Tip: If a “Chanel” bag is 50% or more off, it’s a knock-off. Luxury bags never are 50% off. See this post for shopping the sales.

Do the math! Know when to splurge and/or bargain!

Further Remarks

There are many more tips and tricks to know when you want to have great style on a tiny budget. You can find my full guide on budget fashion shopping tips at this link.

Do you have additional criteria for when to splurge and/or bargain? Do you like to shop sales? Are you a bargain hunter? What was you best splurge ever? What’s your shopping challenge?

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Photos: G. Kramm

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